Hey dudes, just giving some feedback, and might serve as a good informational for future users of sites like abebooks.com, abebooks.co.uk and betterworldbooks.com.
I recently put orders in for books that appeared on their site. They were rarer, more popular books, and when I saw them, I snapped them up as soon as I was able to put the order in.
But… unfortunately they were actually sold before I ordered them, even though my order was accepted.
The sites then proceeded to charge my credit card in US dollars before they could actually confirm that the order would be fulfilled.
Emails got sent to me saying they would refund the money, however their refund process isn't a reversal of the charge. Instead they credit money into the card equivalent to the US dollars that they debited.
So what does this mean? It meant that I was short changed because of the rise in the Aussie dollar against the US dollar! As well as copping the international fee because they didn't reverse the charge.
I'm out of pocket at least $5 from the difference, as well as additional international transaction fees, all because they couldn't come up with the books that I ordered.
So beware! Through no fault of your own, can you actually lose money from these sites. It could have been a bargain if I got hold of the books, but instead I got burned.
I know it's not a lot of money to "lose", and if they outlined this through the checkout process, I may have accepted the risk, but it's not the best feeling when you get stung like this!
Also conversely, I could have been credited money if the exchange rate went the other way, but still! hehe
I don't think it's the correct process to credit the accounts, instead of reversing the transactions.